The authorities warned Baidu to 'promptly delete all files in question, shut down accounts uploading such content, and present a report on its clean-up effort'.

The company has been asked to work on censoring content and was warned against slack supervision of its service.

Launched in April, the anti-pornography campaign of the government forms part of efforts to 'clean up' the Internet. Such campaigns have intensified since the start of Xi Jinping's presidential regime early last year.

Prior to Baidu, Internet firm Sina was fined $828,224 in May by Beijing authorities for enabling access to 'unhealthy and indecent content' on its online reading channel as well as on its main website, reported Reuters.